Vocations and visions for the Christian life

I can’t imagine the diverse and fruitful musical life I’ve enjoyed without the privilege of books. They’ve always been formative, increasing knowledge and imagination—pure oxygen to this autodidact. Here are four books I wouldn’t dare live without.

Seeing Christ

I don’t know what I was thinking when I took on N.T. Wright’s 770-page doorstop, Jesus and the Victory of God, the second volume in his Christian Origins and the Question of God series. I was a busy music producer, not a pastor or a scholar. Still, I had dabbled with seminary classes and was eager to have my theo-axis tilted into fresh territory. I actually read the mammoth book. More accurately, I dog-eared it, highlighted passages, wrote in the margins, and copied passages into my journal. Wright’s writ was precisely what I needed, and it remains in my Top 5 most influential books. The book’s profound scholarship has reshaped a contemporary understanding of Jesus for people worldwide. It is, definitively, a seminal work. To invest time in this book is to explore the historical Jesus within the first-century Jewish context in a wholly unique way. It allows the reader an opportunity to open up space for a fresh look at Jesus’ life, teachings, and actions—to understand Jesus’ self-perception and mission as the fulfillment of Israel’s story and the climax of God’s redemptive plan. The heartbeat of this volume is the idea that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God as a present reality, not a distant hope. Then, He spent His ministry subverting and redefining the status quo of what the kingdom meant. Indeed, Jesus would be King, but King of the cosmos. His law? Love.

Understanding humanity

Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents helped me make sense of society and my place in it by examining the deep-seated hierarchies that shaped the United States. Wilkerson illuminates caste as a social stratification system—one distinct from, but interwoven with, race—that assigns worth and status based on inherited physical traits along with other inherent characteristics. Her analysis identifies several systemic “pillars of caste,” and the ideology behind each pillar perpetuates inequality and justifies oppression. Wilkerson suggests that the American caste system continues to influence social positioning and continues to subjugate African Americans. I’m a white man with significant social advantages, but this book has personal relevance that readers will not likely expect. Wilkerson has helped me understand my father’s family and our West African and Indigenous American ancestry. Post-enslavement, even as free blacks, my ancestors waged a continual fight and flight for dignity. Up against America’s race-based caste system, they endured systemic oppression for centuries until my grandfather married my white grandmother and migrated to California from Louisiana. Only then did the discontents Wilkerson exposes begin to fracture and fade. Our multiracial family survived, but not without the cost of generational trauma. This book helped me envision a more equitable future through empathy, awareness, and structural change.

Embracing vocation

Steven Garber’s The Seamless Life encourages readers to see life as interconnected and imbued with spiritual significance. It is, most accurately, a book about vocation (not to be confused with your occupation or job). Garber drops a profundity worthy of a fine art print: “Vocation is always the longer, deeper story of someone’s life.” He emphasizes the need for a holistic view where trustworthy beliefs permeate every action and interaction, creating a seamless narrative that reflects one’s values and faith. A genuinely winsome writer, Garber’s efficacious book is a master class in “seeing seamlessly.” The beating heart behind Garber’s seamless life thesis is perennial: There is only one meaningful life to be lived by a Christian. This is to step into the story of Jesus as an active participant. We must part with any notion of a bifurcated life—one divided between Christian commitments and those of everyday life. Communicated via tight, artful essays and photography, Garber reminds his readers how we see vocation is how we will steward the life we’re given.

Caring for others

Andi Ashworth’s Real Love for Real Life is a heartfelt exploration of caregiving as a profound expression of love, faith, and creativity. I must confess this last book is an especially personal one for me: Andi has been my wife and partner for nearly 50 years. Not only is the book a delight, but I’ve been a recipient of the fruit of its wisdom. Andi brings dignity to the oft-overlooked work of hospitality and caregiving. She calls it a vocation and an art form reflecting God’s love and design for family and community. She reframes the subject not as a burdensome obli­gation but as meaningful and transformative acts of imaginative goodness. Through her personal experiences and our family stories, she examines the emotional and spiritual dimensions of caring for people—including the cost. This is the real-life part of giving oneself to caring for others. Without boundaries or Sabbath rest, giving out or giving up is inevitable, so she highlights prayer as an essential partner with attentiveness, empathy, and creativity in meeting the unique needs of people. A writer’s writer with a seminary degree, Andi connects the act of caregiving to the life and teachings of Jesus. Caregiving is a way to embody God’s love in tangible, relational ways. I’ve definitely been a beneficiary of this love.

—Charlie Peacock is a Billboard chart-topping, Grammy Award–winning music producer and the author of the memoir Roots & Rhythm